Final Fantasy VIII: Zell's Nightmare Remastered
by Sonata-Time-Flare-Nocturne-Aoi
Summary: One-Shot Complete! Story updated and edited as of 2017. Zell Dincht love to eat hot dogs, that's nothing new. But what happens when an old spirit within Balamb Garden takes one's desires and turns it against them? Prepare for a wild ride as Zell faces the greatest evil imaginable in this hilarious horror fic! Happy Halloween, everyone! Rated T for language.


**Story** : Final Fantasy VIII: Zell's Nightmare Remastered  
 **Authors** : Master Jin Sonata  
 **Written** : October 30th, 2017  
 **Remastered** : November 3rd, 2017  
 **Genre** : Humor/Horror  
 **Rating** : T (Language)  
 **Disclaimer** : We do not own Square or its hot-dog eating compadre.  
 **Author's Note** : This story idea was something I've been meaning to write and publish several years ago, around 2003 to be exact. Better late than never!

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 **One Shot: Final Fantasy VIII: Zell's Nightmare Remastered**

 **Zell's Room**

It was late in the evening at Balamb Garden. Most of the student body were already in their dorm rooms either doing homework or just chilling with friends. Zell Dincht, our residential martial artist and hot-dog lover, had fallen asleep earlier that afternoon after an extensive training session with a T-Rex within the Garden's Training Center.

Not quite sure what triggered it, but Zell awoke in a daze. He found himself on his couch, his head resting on the soft cushion as he pushed his palms against his eyes to wipe away the tiredness he felt. He must've been seriously knocked out, as he saw that it was after 10:00pm upon looking at his cell phone.

"Damn, when did I doze off? Well, it doesn't really matter, time to get a bite to eat before it gets too late!" Zell tells himself as he hops to his feet and jogs out of his room.

 **Garden Central Rotunda**

Along the way toward the cafeteria, he notices a familiar face standing alone by the central stairwell that lead to the elevator.

It was the Library Girl, the one with a pigtail that was crushing on him. She looked a bit lost and not quite her usual self upon further inspection as Zell casually approaches her.

"Hey, s'up? Something spook you?" Zell asks her, resting his hands in his pockets.

At first, she was a bit hesitant to answer. She had already expressed her feelings for Zell in the past, so talking to him shouldn't have been intimidating. No, something else was bothering her.

"Well…" she began, not knowing where to start. "Have you…heard any stories about a strange occurrence that happens around this time of year?" the Library Girl cautiously asks.

Zell raises an eyebrow at the odd question, but then sneers. "Nope, can't say that I have. Some sort of foreign or occult holiday that I don't know of?" he inquires.

"Y-yeah…um…on the eve of the 31st of October, it is said that an ancient spirit that lives within these Garden walls comes to life and manifests itself into the minds of its victims. The spirit then feeds upon that person's greatest desires before using it to consume them in insanity…" the Library Girl explains.

"Uh…" Zell states, his voice trailing off as he did not know how to respond to such a tall-tale. "That sounds…odd. How do you know about this, exactly?" he questions her.

It's all stated here within this journal," the Library Girl answers, pulling out a small red book from within her pocket, showing it to Zell. "I implore you to read it...for your own protection, of course."

Zell leans in closer to get a better look at the old book. "Sure, I'll give it a flip-through. It'll give me something to read while I chow down on some grub!" Zell responds, taking the book from the girl and tucking into his back pants pocket. He then stretches his arms and yawns, shutting his eyes in the process. "So, what are you going to do next? Wanna join me for dinner?"

As Zell finishes his question, he opens his eyes once more, only to see that the Library Girl had suddenly disappeared without a trace. Zell stood there dumbfounded for a full thirty seconds trying to figure out what was going on before shrugging off the thought.

"Oh well, she must have had to go to the little girl's room or something. Now, where was I…" Zell says as he resumes his jog toward the cafeteria.

 **Garden Cafeteria**

Arriving at the cafeteria, Zell immediately notices that he was the only person there.

"Man, this place is dead tonight! Oh well, that means no lines for me to wait in to get my food," Zell says as he approaches the counter to order. "Hey, lunch lady! I'll take thirty hot-dogs with a side order of chili and a small diet cola!" Zell calls out, trying to get some sort of service.

As if cue, a tray packed to the brim with his exact order starts floating up from behind the counter and levitates in front of Zell's face, as if it were beckoning him to take it.

Zell laughs a bit nervously at the weird but somewhat cool demonstration.

"Ohoho, I see y'all trying to play a prank on me by using the Float spell to deliver my food, eh?" Zell says, hoping for a response from someone in the back kitchen who was performing this stunt.

There was no answer.

"O-kay…" Zell says quietly as he slowly takes the tray and heads to an empty seat near the center of the cafeteria's eating area.

Plopping himself down, the book given to him earlier by the Library Girl pops out of his back pocket, falling to the floor.

"Oops, nearly forgot about this!" he says, leaning down to pick it up.

As he began to mow down the pile of hot-dogs, Zell thumbs through the old book, not finding anything of immediate interest.

"Man, that girl sure has weird taste in books. I wonder if she's into any martial art novels or cookbooks…" Zell ponders out loud as he continues to try to find something that stands out.

Nearing the end of the journal, Zell stops on the last page, his eyes flying open in shock at what he was now staring at.

It was an old pencil sketch of a young man…that looked exactly like him.

"What the…? Is this some sort of joke to frighten me? I bet the Library Girl drew this in just to scare me!" Zell chuckles, realizing that this coincidence was probably a well-fabricated prank. Humoring the notion, he decides to turn the page to see if anything else was worth looking at.

He did, in fact. On the backside of the drawing was a note. It read: _"Beware what consumes you, as your inner-most desires will be your undoing as the spirit of the Garden will seek those who indulge in it."_

Zell slams the book shut and places it on the table. "Man, that's enough of this garbage! This is all completely bogus," he reassures himself, resuming his meal.

As he neared the end of his dinner, Zell suddenly hears something strange from behind him.

It was he sound of growling.

Zell smirks.

"All right Library Girl, or cafeteria lady, I know what you are trying to do, trying to scare the pants off of me, well it's not going to wo-" Zell says sarcastically as he turns in his seat to face whoever had approached him.

Zell freezes in place, and slowly lifts his head…

…as he was now face to face with a gargantuan monstrous-looking chili-dog that was the size and length a double-decker bus. It had small beady white eyes, but that in itself was offset by its wide row of chainsaw-like teeth that was oozing thick chili sauce from its mouth. It glowers down upon Zell, continuing to growl maliciously at him, its eyes looking like it wanted to eat Zell at any given moment.

"WwwwwaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAIIIIIIII!" Zell shrieks in a high-pitched panic as he trips over himself trying to leave the table, bolting away from the monstrously evil chili-dog as the freakishly-huge creature jumps onto the table, smashing it to pieces while it attempts to shuffle and chase after its target.

 **Garden Hallway Near The Quad**

Running so fast that he was leaving a trail of flames behind him, Zell frantically flees the cafeteria and down the hallways of the Garden, not even attempting to look back to see if that monster was still after him.

Turning a corner near the Quad, Zell runs into Seifer, appearing to be on patrol. They collide into one another, sending Seifer flying backwards into a bunch of trash cans against a wall.

"Damn it all, Chicken-Wuss! What the hell is your problem?!" Seifer yells out as he quickly regains his composure and stands back up onto his feet.

"Seifer! Boy am I glad to see you! You gotta help me, I'm being attacked by a big-ass killer chili-dog!" Zell frantically tells Seifer.

"…Are you high off your rocker?! What are you talking about? There is no such thing as giant killer chili-dogs! I'm going to have to write you up and send you to the infirmary for your delusional-" Seifer says in a huff as he prepares to pull out his clipboard and pen from his trench coat…

 **CRASH!**

…when suddenly the giant evil chili-dog crashes onto Seifer from above without warning, crushing him in an instant.

"AAAAIIIEEEEEE!" Zell screams as he turns about-face and flees the Quad and continues his escape down the hallways.

 **Garden Hallway Near The Parking Lot**

Eventually Zell sees his team in the distance near the parking lot. Squall, Rinoa, Irvine, Selphie, and Quistis were the members present.

Screeching to a halt in front of his pals, Zell heaves heavilly as it appears he had outran his aggressor.

"Zell, what in the world is going on?!" Quistis inquires.

"Yeah, what's eating you?" Selphie asks out of curiosity.

"A GIANT-ASS HOT-DOG, THAT'S WHAT!" Zell shouts to Selphie in particular in response to the seemingly tasteless remark.

"Whao, easy there, fella! Take a breath and tell us the issue," Irvine says, trying to calm Zell down.

After a moment of regaining his composure, Zell sighs and starts explaining to them the whole story from the time he woke up to the point of Seifer getting wrecked by this monstrous food-like creature.

"…You have got to be kidding me…" Squall responds in disbelief, arms crossed as he listens begrudgingly to the seemingly fallacious story.

"Squall, don't be so hard on him," Rinoa states before looking back towards Zell. "How about we go and take a look at this creature that's after you. Maybe it's some sort of giant prop gone awry or something," Rinoa offers.

"I don't know guys, that things seems way too realistic and bloodthirsty to be some sort of wacky mechanism…" Zell responds in doubt.

"Well then, it appears we'll just have to take that thing out ourselves," Quistis responds, taking out her chain whip and giving it a crack.

"Guys I'm telling you, I don't think that's such a good idea…" Zell pleads with his team.

"Nonsense, we'll get to the bottom of this right now so we can prove to you that you are just overreacting as always," Squall says dryly.

Before Zell could say another word, all of his pals rush from within the parking lot and into the hallway, readying their weapons. The familiar growl of the giant chili-dog monster could be heard in the distance as it was soon approaching them.

"Okay guys, get ready, it sounds like its coming down the north side of the-" Squall started to say…

 **SHROOOOMP!**

…when he and everyone else were suddenly devoured in one big gulp by the chili-dog monster who had surprised attacked them all from the opposite direction.

Zell, standing all alone once again, couldn't even move from fear as the monster then turns its attention onto him, encroaching upon our hero ready to eat him next.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Zell yells at the top of his lungs as the giant chili-dog monster dives in for the kill.

 **Zell's Room**

"WAH!"

Zell lets out a loud yelp as he was now back in his room, lying on his couch. He was sweating profusely and breathing heavily from the apparently nightmare he had just experienced.

"Man…it was all just a bad dream…" Zell says, sitting upright and sighing loudly with relief.

He looks toward his clock, which read 10:00pm once again.

"That is the last time I over-train myself to exhaustion…I should go get something to eat…" he says to himself, before getting a buzz on his cellphone that sat on the table next to his couch.

He picks it up and checks to see who was calling him.

It was the Library Girl.

Zell answers.

"Hello?"

 _"Hi Zell! Missed you at dinner earlier. Want to get some chili-dogs for dinner? I also have a cool book on spirits I wants to share with y-"_

"NO! NO CHILI-DOGS! NO GOD-DAMN CHILI-DOGS OR CREEPY-ASS BOOKS!" Zell shouts into his phone before slamming it onto the floor, effectively and abruptly ending the call.

Zell plops back down onto his couch and groans.

"I think I'll stick to eating vegetables for a while…" he says, burying his face into the cushions beneath him in frustration.

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The End!

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